I was a professional microwaver until I got married in 1999. Once I got married, I decided it was time to learn how to make real meals and this site really helped me in terms of learning how to cook and bake and also discovering that I really enjoyed it. I'm eternally grateful to the Allrecipes community for helping me to learn how to cook and bake wonderful food from scratch and for all the great recipes and tips I've gotten from this site. Italian food, gooey desserts, salads. Getting together in the kitchen as a family to roll meatballs and make homemade marinara sauce for the holidays. Baking cookies and exchanging them for Christmas. I've gotten lots of compliments on my cooking and baking from my parents and in-laws-that says it all! I once put something in the oven that was leaking and it created so much smoke, the automatic fire alarm went off and the fire department showed up at my house!